Digital Camera advice

I am looking at getting a digital camera for everyday family use (not professional!), my budget is around £200/$300. Can I get anything decent for that? Could anyone recommend a particular model? OR advise me on the type of specifications I need to look out for resolution, memory etc?

Thank you!

Whatever you do, get one with a rechargeably Li-ion battery.

1) Check the information available at Digital Photography Review.

2) Get something that not only is highly reviewed, but that fits your hand and photography style.

3) Get the features you need and as many of the features you would like while staying with quality.

IMHO the most important feature is image quality: No matter how much everything else improves over the years your "negatives," the original digital files from your camera, will never get better. You can't pull more detail out of an image that just doesn't have more detail.

Image quality isn't just "how many pixels" an image has, but how well it handles

"edges" - the transition from one brightness level in an image to another or one color to another needs to be crisp;

color accuracy - yes it can be corrected to a great extent, but if colors are inaccurate some information in inevitably lost; and

noise level (grain) - some digital cameras are a lot noisier than others, especially at low light levels. Try to find one with as low a noise level as possible.

Those last two are often overlooked and shouldn't be. How well a camera's system handles level transitions within an image (edges) will determine how crisp and sharp the image appears. Yes, you can punch up the "sharpness" later, bit that leaves obvious digital artifacts if done very much, and it only "imitates" something that was not in the image. You cannot just "create" image data: It is either there or not.

The noise level or grain of an image, especially at low light levels, is something that can drive you nuts. Pictures taken in less than bright sunlight or at close range with flash by many cameras are incredibly noisy. Some have low noise sensors and low noise amps and can handle low light levels fairly well, but most consumer level digital cameras have slow lenses and try to make up for that with high gain amps that just increase the noise level beyond what is acceptable.

Once you have it narrowed down to cameras in your price range that can give a good quality image, THEN start looking at the rest of the features ...

The brand of the camera is the last thing I would look at, so long as it isn't some off-brand you are likely OK.

Take care,

You should be able to get something quite nice for that price. Take a look around @ steves-digicams.com

Thanks, zmoz, I'd forgotten about Steve's. They were instrumental in my getting my current Digicam rather than another. Good reviews! (there are a lot of people "reviewing" cameras that merely seem to use the manufacturers handouts as the "review").

Steve's and dpreview both have reviews that are trustworthy, and other information to help one make choices.

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V8TOYOTATRK said:
Whatever you do, get one with a rechargeably Li-ion battery.

[/ QUOTE ]

When buying the camera, if it comes with rechargable batteries, don't forget, you'll have to carry the charger with you lest your camera become useless. The charger sometimes doubles (or more) the amount of volume you'll need to carry. This isn't a big problem if you'll be using it for occasional snapshots, but might come into play if you take lots of shots.

Rechargeable batteries are a good thing, but IMHO, standard battery sizes are better. If the device takes standard batteries (even at reduced capacity) you're not left lugging around a chunk of plastic if your batteries die - just go buy a replacement set.

Additionally, rechargeable battery packs eventually die. If the manufacturer has discontinued the model, good luck finding the proprietary replacement. With common-sized rechargeables, it's never a problem to replace bad cells and/or upgrade them when higher capacities become available.

Get a Canon A70 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

$290, has a TON of features. and will take EXCELLENT pics. It also uses easy to find and buy AA batteries. Dont get a cam that has a battery pack! They are too expensiv to buy a second batt pack, and you will want one. I use rechargable AA's in my Canon.

I have played with many digicams, some costing $600+, and even the A20 outdoes some of them.

The A70 is the newest one, its the BEST cam out there for under 300 bucks.

http://www.powershot.com/powershot2/a70-60/index.html

This is a great review site. http://www.steves-digicams.com/

Just to make your decision a little bit harder, I'm going to contradict a lot of what's already said here.

1. I prefer camera's that use AA rechargeables myself. LI-Ions cost a lot more to replace. They also cost a lot to buy a few as spares. LI-Ions are lighter and typically have more capacity, but that may change as AA capacities are going up day by day. An 1800ma Duracell AA costs less then a dollar right now. 2200ma batteries can be had for a little bit more.

2. If you like your pictures larger then 4x6 and have basic picture editing skills, megapixels are one of the most important factors you should consider. If you only print 4x6's and view them on screen, then any megapixel above 2 will do. The more the better though, as you'll have more cropping room.

3. Stick with the main brands, namely Canon, Sony, Olympus, and Nikon and also Minolta and Fuji. Sure there are other brands, but it's easier to hit and not miss with the main brands.

4. If you buy a recent camera and stick with the brands, image quality isn't really that important as they're all close to each other. You'll be able to tell the difference at 10x, but stop looking at your pictures at 10x.

5. By all means, read the reviews. Not just the site reviews, but the user reviews at DPReview as well.

6. When reading the reviews, pay particular attention to the timings part. Often overlooked numbers that will eventually bug you are:
- On to first shot time
- Focus speed
- Shot to shot times/buffer capacity

7. Storage type isn't really too important unless you want to share it across devices. Meaning, Sony cameras use Memory Stick while others use Compact Flash or SD.

Not meaning to offend anyone, just offering a different view on things.

BrianC, I agree with most of your post, and that's one of the neat things about these sort of forums - the ability to refine and correct. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Taking your points:

1) Absolutely! Both my current digitals take AA NiMH's.
2) Yes, adequate size of initial image (4+Meg / 1800x2400 pixels) is absolutely necessary, but if choosing between 4.2 and 4.4M, for example, look at quality - the size difference is too small to worry about.
3) The first four you list are pretty much the main brands, the other two are almost obscure - Mine happen to be an Olympus and a Fuji. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif My Fuji gives better images. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon3.gif
4) Maybe, maybe not. See #3. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
5) Absolutely!
6)Oops! I forgot that. That's one important reason I got my Fuji - very quick at turn-on AND between pics, but even more important, a very short delay between "Push the button" and "Take the picture."
7) I agree, though some formats have larger maximum storage room than others.

No offense at all! In my original post I downplayed megapixel size a bit too much. I probably assumed that he'd be looking at adequate sizes. Sorry!

Lots of good info here, Kev.

Thanks all...quite a bit to digest here!! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

There is a magazine in the UK called What Digital Camera. It has lots of reviews and a price/feature comparision each issue. They also do not pull any punches about what is good or flaky with a particular brand.

Battery life depends mostly on camera rather than battery. I have a Panasonic Lumix 2AA that is a battery pig and two Fuji 2AA that can fill at least two 128Meg memory cards on a set (no flash on either). I also have had a Nikon 4500 that runs for hours and a 5700 that runs about 30 pics on the same battery.

The major shortcoming with LI-Ion battery packs is when you pack the charger in your checked bags instead of your carryon and security decides to open your bags and the chager either falls out or is confiscated and now you have a very expensive paperweight. I think sometimes airport security thinks our bags are an outlet for Batteries R Us.

When it comes to the small cameras for general purpose and more, I tend to lean towards them smallish metal bodied canons.

Shelby,

I have a really nice Contax T2 that I am thinking about selling or trading for one of the Cannon metal bodied units you have described. I have an Olympus 4040 which I use daily but I would like to get a small digital for taking with. Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Don

Check out the Olympus D-560 3MP, 7.8 oz, small body (4.4 x 2.3 x 1.6in), uses 2AA. Also look at the Canon PowerShot 30 3MP respectively, 11.4 oz, slightly bigger than the Olympus. Lion battery.

If your after really small, look at the Minolta Dimage X 5.5oz, 3.3 x 2.8 x 0.8in, only 2MP.

Don,

That 5 megapixel canon is quite nice.
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Canon/canon_s50.asp
can do full range manual.

Trailstoride,

Thanks.

Shelby,

Thank you too! I assume the S50 is a metal body. I will look into it in detail when I get a chance.

- Don

The Olympus Stylus 300/400 Digital are weather resistant so you can use them while snow skiiing or in a light rain.

My A10 has survived light rain, heavy snow, some mud, very cold temps. Its still ticking.

Just to add my 2 cents, both my Olympus cameras use rechargeable AA nimh batteries, it's always easy to keep backup batteries available. My Olympus 2 megapixel camera can make prints up to 8x10,which were so good, a friend was shocked and he is a long time shutterbug.

Here is another worth looking at, the Pentex Optio S It is a 3MP metal camera the size of a deck of playing cards /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif 3.3 x 2 x 0.8 inches and only 4.1 ounces /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif Even has a 3x optical zoom.